


Where does it hurt?

by Ghosting_Around



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Bisexual Character, Bisexual Jeremy Heere, Football, Football Player Jake Dillinger, M/M, No SQUIP, Queer Character, Queer Jake Dillinger, Soulmate AU, Trainer Jeremy Heere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2019-10-26 16:41:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17749610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghosting_Around/pseuds/Ghosting_Around
Summary: Jake rolls his eyes and waves her away. Chloe pats his shoulder before heading back to the team to help set up for the next drill. Jake glances at the two seats in the front, and is surprised to see not only Spencer, but also Jeremy in the shotgun seat. Jeremy has on a purple t-shirt that says “MASA” on it and 26-27, last school year. Jeremy is also sporting orange shorts, pink tennis shoes, red sunglasses and - once again - a strong scent of sunscreen.As Spencer starts up the cart and starts driving away, Jake places his arm along the little area between the trunk and the front two seats - the thing separating Jeremy and Jake - and says, “hey.”Looking only a bit surprised by Jake’s approach, Jeremy turns his head only slightly and nods back. “Hey.” Jeremy turns his head back. Jake awkwardly looks away, so much for a conversation.





	1. Hot as Hell

The only thing that Jake could really think of for the last hour of practice was water, water and more water. Preferably in the form of a shower. Showing up on the backfield at 6:30 am to set up for practice that started at 7:00 am was never fun, but being one of the team captains demands it. It’s not as bad as he thought it would be, but still, it’s Friday and no one wants to be here right now. Practice goes from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm and just about no one wants to be doing perfect 40s, but coach demands it. A perfect 40 is where everyone lines up and sprints full speed for 40 yards, and if anyone slows down at all, then they start over. They’ve done it about ten times already.

Rich called him crazy for joining the football team. He does every time Jake mentions football, which has gotten kind of old considering that Jake is a senior and has been playing football since freshman year. Brooke just wishes that he gets as much sleep as he can, because god knows how busy Jake is. She’s honestly the sweetest about it, and Jake really appreciates it when she brings a giant, glittery sign to his games to cheer him on. Jenna doesn’t usually say much, but she’s on the debate team, and that class is seventh period - the same time as Jake’s football class. So, whenever Jenna is let out early, she’ll come over to watch Jake practice and make comments like, “my mother runs faster than that” and “I’ve seen you lift Rich, don’t tell me you can't lift _that_.” You would think Jake would be annoyed by it, but she ends up sounding just like coach so he’s used to it.

Chloe also thinks that the workout that they do is insane, but she complains more about the head coach than Jake’s lifestyle choices, which is something he appreciates. Chloe is a trainer, which means that she’s there to make sure that if someone gets hurt, they will be properly taken care of. There’s about five trainers for the football team, mostly because so many people get hurt. The only trainer that Jake actually knows is Chloe, he thinks that there’s two guy and two other girls. He’s not completely sure though.

They actually show up for practice to help out a lot. Chloe can only come on Wednesdays and Fridays because she has work. Jake is pretty sure that there’s one guy trainer that shows up everyday, and sometimes brings coffee for the captains - which of course includes Jake - but he can’t remember his name. It’s kind of rude now that he thinks about it. He should probably learn their name by the end of practice.

Practice goes on for three weeks before school starts, Monday through Friday, seven am every day. Jake would hate it if he didn’t love football so much. There’s also the benefits of being the oldest and one of the coolest on the team, because everybody likes him. There’s never any drama or anything - it’s not like this is a girl’s team - and he has a whole bunch of close friends.

But for now he’s kind of pissed at them for not giving their all and making everyone sprint. Did he mention that it’s 80 degrees out?

“C’mon guys keep pushing, we’ve only got like,” he checks his watch, “five minutes left, then we got all weekend.”

Most of the older guys murmur in agreement, which Jake will count as a small victory. Coach blows his whistle and Jake takes off again, leaving a lot of the guys in the dust. His feet carry him faster and faster as he pants as heavily as he can. There’s gotta be sweat all over his body. He only stops after he’s passed the 40-yard line. They only do it one more time before coach decides to end practice early. They break-out and Jake promptly decides to just lay down in the grass, and die. He closes his eyes and throws his arm over them to block out the glaring sun. He lets his heartbeat slow and his breaths get more even as he lays there. Nobody bothers him for a minute.

Until, “hey, uh, Jake. Are you ok?”

Jake removes his arm from his face and squints. A person’s face is above him, blocking the sunlight. They’ve got sunglasses, a hat on, a tank top and a heavy smell of sunscreen. He blinks a few times and is finally able to identify who the person is. It’s the guy that always is here. The one that brings coffee and will sometimes talk to Chloe but mostly keeps to himself. He’s the guy that is always next to Coach Spencer - the head trainer - and jumps really high in the air whenever he’s excited.

Ok, maybe Jake knows this guy a little more than he realized.

“Jake?”

Jake comes back to reality. He stares at the guy for a few more seconds before nodding his head. “Yeah, I’m fine, just uh, pretty tired, ya know.” Hat guy nods.

“Well, all of the guys are leaving and everything’s packed up, so I think you should move some time soon.”

Jake takes a closer look at the guy and sees a water bottle in his hand, one of the ones that are provided for the team that the trainers usually spray into their mouths. Jake asks, “hey um, before I get up, can you just squirt all the water you have on me?”

The guy raises his eyebrow, “you want me to like, hose you down...with a water bottle?” Jake nods, and the guy shrugs, as if to say, “sure why not.”

So Jake closes his eyes and feels the cold water start at his ankles and slowly move up. It feels very, very nice and he almost sighs, but he doesn’t because that feels kind of embarrassing. The water stops at his neck and the guy asks, “hey, do you want to pour the rest on your face?”

Without opening his eyes Jake replies, “I wouldn’t object to that.” He hears the top being unscrewed and is only shocked a little bit when water and ice crashes against his face. He sputters a bit and wipes the water off his face. Jake puts a thumbs-up in the air and hears the guy walk away. He runs his fingers through the grass, digging his fingers to touch the dried roots. He reaches his hand next to his head and picks up an ice cube. It slips and slides between his thumb and pointer finger as he tries to pick it up. Soon enough, he stops trying and stands up. He makes his way off the center of the field and picks his bag up from the bench. The football field is always relatively quiet when no one’s on it. 

There’s three fields that Middleborough High School uses, and one of them is only for competition that’s next to a busy road. Sadly, Middleborough doesn’t have nearly enough money to have a full stadium, so the game-field has only one side with stands. It took him while to realize why they couldn’t play on that field - because if the bands that come to perform were on the same set of stands, it would be way too crowded. So, for all home games, they go to a district-made stadium, which is only five minutes away.

Jake walks off the field and is a bit surprised to see Chloe leaning against the field house’s brick wall, looking at her phone in an impatient manor. She looks up and says, “ _finally_ , c’mon, we’re gonna be late.”

Confused, Jake raises an eyebrow. Chloe tilts her head and gives him a lookTM. “Lunch? With Brooke and Rich and Ryu and Jenna and Katrina and Stephanie?”

Jake lets out a long, “oh yeahhhh.” He did forget that, but could you blame him? Looking down at himself, Jake cringes. He can’t go into a restaurant like this, sweaty and soaking and disgusting. He pulls on his shirt to fan himself, and says, “yeah, I think I need to change. Can we stop at my place?”

Chloe frowns, “I thought I texted you last night to bring an extra set of clothes to wear to lunch?”

Sighing, Jake checks in his bag, and what do you know? There’s his favorite Star Wars t-shirt and a pair of khakis. He looks up at Chloe, “how do you think of everything?”

“I’ve gotten used to you forgetting everything, now...just get changed here, nobody’s around.” Jake quickly does as told, and also puts on deodorant - that Chloe must’ve also told him to pack last night - on. They walk to his car and Jake slides in, but Chloe doesn’t get in immediately. Jake frowns and leans over the center console, “what’re you doing?”

She crosses her arms, “that thing has been baking in the sun, get the air blasting, and then I’ll get in.”

“You were the one complaining about us being late!”

“Ugh, just hurry up!”

Jake shakes his head and slides his keys in. As soon as it rumbles on, he turns all of the fans up to blast, which is a bit uncomfortable seeing as it’s blowing hot air for now. Admittedly, Chloe is right, he feels like he’s melting in here. While he waits for the car to cool, he pulls out his phone and checks the texts from last night.

 

_V for Vendetta: hey so tomorrow brooke jenna and a bunchof other ppl r gonna go to lunch at Torchy’s Tacos and want us to come. Ik u have nothing to do so we’re going and so that means u need to pack clothes for lunch no one wants to smell ur sweaty ass_

_V for Vendetta: and deodorant_

_Got it!_

Jake shakes his head. He might lose his head if Chloe didn’t tell him to put it on every morning.

Soon enough, Chloe slides in the car and they’re on their way. Chloe pulls out her make-up bag and start applying stuff to her face with the mirror thing that comes down from the ceiling. She asks, “why did you have Jeremy water you like a plant?”

Jake pulls up to a red light and asks, “who?”

Chloe turns to give him another lookTM. “The guy who just watered you down not five minutes ago? The guy who’s been a trainer for the past two years? C’mon Jake, how can you not know Jeremy?”

Oh, that’s the guy’s name. “Ok look, I do know who he is, like,” the light turns green and Jake starts driving forward, “I can recognize him, I just never had a name to put to his face.”

Chloe rolls her eyes, “Jeremy’s in our grade Jake, and I’m pretty sure you guys have had classes together before.”

“Give me a break! I can only remember so many people.”

Chloe shakes her head and keeps attacking her face with mascara and lipstick. Jake remembers Chloe spending the night at his house once, when they were 11, she had stolen her mom’s make-up purse and was applying it to Jake. His parents were home that night, and when they walked in on Jake showing off his sparkly purple eye lashes and pretty pink lips, they couldn’t stop laughing. Chloe got very upset though and started crying. Jake’s parents had to comfort her as they explained that she did a great job, but on Jake it looked silly because he wasn’t modeling it correctly. It was a weird night of Jake learning to strut and Chloe learning how to take off makeup.

Cut to five years later and Chloe was sobbing in Jake and Brooke’s arms because she didn’t get in the beauty art program that the high school offered. Jake didn’t know how to console her, so he did the first thing he think off, he put on an atrocious amount of purple makeup and strutted up and down his room. That got Chloe to smile pretty quickly.

“Jake!”

Jake jolts out of the memory and glances at Chloe, “what was that?! You can’t yell at the driver!”

“Yeah, well, the _driver_ just drove past the restaurant.”

Glancing back, Jake sees that he did, indeed miss it. He quickly U-Turns and pulls into the parking of the strip mall that has Torchy’s Tacos.

Both of them rush inside and get in line, Chloe scans the tables and points out their friends sitting at a table on the opposite wall. She says, “you know what I want,” then walks away. Jake shakes his head and glances up at the menu. Chloe always gets the same thing but Jake likes to try something new every time. When he gets up to the counter he orders two Shrimp tacos for Chloe and three Spicy Beef tacos for himself, along with two drinks.

As Jake walks to the soda fountain with the drink cups in hand, he looks through the crowded restaurant and spots his friends. Brooke and Jenna see him and wave, he throws up a peace sign at them as he pours himself and Chloe the same drink. He sits down next to Chloe and Rich. Chloe hands him a five dollar bill for her food and Rich slaps him on the back. It’s loud in the place, so Rich shouts, “so how was hell practice?”

Jake rolls his eyes and grabs a chip from the center basket. “It was hot, to say the least.” He dips the chip in a tiny bowl of salsa and eats the chip.

From the other side of Chloe, Brooke says, “I don’t know how you can stand running outside right now Jake, I mean, it’s like a hundred degrees out!” Jake glances at what Brooke is wearing. She’s got on a camisole and high-waisted short-short jeans. They’ve got flowers embroidered in them.

He asks, “if it’s so hot, then why are you wearing jeans?”

Brooke glances down, she twists her mouth before arguing, “they’re shorts, big difference between normal jeans.”

Jenna, who is sitting next to her, says, “actually it’s 85 out, but feels like 91.”

Chloe throws up her hands, “why do they even conclude that in the weather app? I mean, how am I supposed to know how hot 91 degrees is? I can barely tell the difference between 60 and 70!”

Rich says through a full mouth, “do they have a person stand outside and tell them what is feels like today?”

“Rich, close your mouth and chew before you speak. Who taught you manners?” Katrina says this from opposite the table of Rich. She’s Rich’s current girlfriend. Katrina is a lot like Brooke in many ways, she’s super sweet and smart, but from what Jake hears is that she gets around a lot. Jake almost asked her out once, but he backtracked when he heard that she cheated on three of her boyfriends. It’s kind of ironic that she’s dating Rich though, because he too is famous for cheating on people. Everyone’s kind of waiting to see who cheats first.

“Hey Jeremy!”

Jake turns his head at the sound of Chloe’s screechy voice saying that. She sitting tall in her chair and is waving to someone across the restaurant. Jeremy, obviously. Jake follows Chloe’s gaze and sees who she’s waving at.

Same guy from 30 minutes ago, just in different clothes and no sunglasses. He does still have a hat on. He’s got on sandals and is carrying a big bag of carry-out food. Jeremy waves back before walking out the door. Jake watches Jeremy walk past all the windows and into the parking lot. Jake lets his eyes pull away when Jeremy disappears behind a van.

Brooke sips her drink, “who’s that?”

Chloe answers, “Jeremy, he’s a trainer. He got to spray down Jake with a water bottle at the end of the practice.”

Brooke sputters, “he got to _what_?”

Chiming in, Jenna says, “wait, _who_ sprayed Jake with a water bottle?” Katrina is now listening in as well. Jake glances at Rich, who isn’t paying any attention. He’s having a conversation with Ryu and Stephanie about what would happen if Captain Marvel (from Marvel) fought Captain Marvel (from DC).

Rolling his eyes, Jake answers them, “Jeremy, a trainer, sprayed me with a water bottle because I asked him to because I thought I was gonna get a heat stroke.” The girls look alarmed, so he quickly adds in, “ _not_ literally.”

Brooke nods, “cool, I think I’ve seen him before at your games.”

“ _Speaking_ of which.” Jake turns to his left. Ryu is leaning over as if to end the previous discussion. He asks Jake, “when do you think your first game is?”

Jake frowns, glancing back and forth. “I’m not completely sure, but I think it’s the second Friday after school starts.”

They all nod their heads, and only a second later, Jake’s tacos are being placed in front of him. He starts chowing down as he thinks about this season. Only six months ago, he was scared if he would even be playing, now, he’s a captain of the team, and is a senior. Scouts will be coming to watch him, which is very terrifying. They might be the only chance he gets into a good college. This season is gonna be a whole lot tougher than last year, but, he can survive it. Right? Yeah. Right. All he has to do, is stay focused of school and football and everything will turn out just fine. No girls, no drama, no parties that start at one am, no injuries, no fire, and _definitely_ no relationships.


	2. Feeling Dislocated

Jake wishes that he could’ve at least kept  _ one  _ of his promises for longer than a week. Sadly, that isn’t the case.

  


On Wednesday, coach (football coach, not Coach Spencer) was having everyone play this game where you got a partner and you had to link arms with them while trying to not let them get through a set of cones that are about ten yards away. It’s basically just shoving each other as hard as you can for ten yards. Jake had already gone through an array of guys, and all of them ended in ties, but he was determined to win his last one. Who’s gonna respect him if he can’t even push another guy?

  


So he gives it his all as he pushes and shoves against a guy named Dreymon. Dreymon is just as big as Jake, but hasn’t been playing football as long as he has. They know each other, but aren’t necessarily friends. The game is a lot more fun with his friends, but Dreymon will suffice. Jake and him put all of their weight into each other as the make their way to the cones.

  


Only a yard away from the cones, Jake places his foot down to ground himself and feels his body crumble as his knee makes a popping sound. Jake curls in on himself and and sucks in a deep breath.

  


God his knee hurts, so much. Jake lifts his head and tries to breath out slowly, but ends up crying out. It doesn’t hurt as much as it being broken, but  _ Jesus _ it feels like he’s being stabbed.

  


The sun’s light is soon not touching his face as people surround him. He hears Dreymon saying “holy shit, I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” Everyone else is saying something else.

  


“What happened?”

  


“Dreymon, you idiot.”

  


“Are you ok?”

  


“Give him some space!”

  


Soon Jake hears Coach Spencer speaking to him. “Jake, can you open your eyes?”

  


Jake didn’t realize that his eyes were practically glued shut. He slowly opens them, still trying to slowly breath. It does nothing to stop the pain, but it calms him for some reason. Jake glances around and sees Spencer kneeled at his side. Chloe is on the other side and next to her is Jeremy. Jeremy is staring at Jake’s knee, probably very concerned. Jake considers saying hi to him, but he’s cut off by Spencer.

  


“Jake, we’re going to help you sit up, ok? Tell us if it hurts too much.” Jake nods at Spencer and extends his arms. Chloe moves behind him while Jeremy and Spencer take his hand. Jeremy’s fingers are nimble and his hands are calloused, not rough from catching a ball like Jake’s, but not soft like Brooke’s. 

  


Jake shakes his head and focuses on sitting up. He manages to be able to hold himself in a sitting position, still in a terrible amount of pain. He looks down at his knee and raises an eyebrow. It doesn’t look hurt. It’s slightly red, but other than that, it seems fine. Jake tries to lift it but cries out and throws his head back. Tears prick at his eyes, but he refuses to cry. It’s gonna be fine.

  


Chloe sassily says, “yeah don’t do that dumbass.”

  


Spencer gives Chloe a look before going to examine Jake’s knee. He gingerly lifts his hands and says, “I need to see where you're injured. Tell me when it hurts.”

  


Jake nods his head and asks, “am I gonna be ok?”

  


Jeremy answers this time. “Just focus on breathing Jake.” Jake looks up at him. He’s on Jake’s left side and looks very serious. He’s got his arms crossed and has a wide stance. His head is slightly tilted as he peers at Jake’s knee. 

  


Jake glances around and sees his teammates all with worried looks. The sophomores look goddamn terrified. Jake forces a chuckle, “well if I don’t do that I might have some more serious injuries.”

  


Laughter echoes through his team at his joke. Jeremy looks back at him as if to say ‘did you really just say that?’ Jake gives him a tiny smirk. Jeremy rolls his blue eyes. They contrast his light, curly hair quite well. Jake continues to look at Jeremy until he feels an incredibly sharp pain in his knee and yells louder than he wants to.

  


Spencer removes his hands quickly. Jake lets himself lay back down and tries to take Jeremy’s advice. He feels Chloe sit behind him and place a hand on his shoulder. He tilts his head back even more to see her. She doesn’t look worried at all, unlike everyone else. She shakes her head at him. “You’ve survived worse Jake.”

  


Jake looks back down at hearing Jeremy saying to Spencer, “do you think it’s-”

  


Spencer cuts him off in agreement. “Yep. Jake,” Spencer turns to Jake and says with a sympathetic face, “you dislocated your knee.”

  


A round of ‘oohs’ run through the team. Jake squeezes his eyes and scoffs. Great. He lets his head drop back down and asks with a tight throat, “how bad is it?”

  


“Not that bad, but we need to pop it back in.”

  


Jake bites his tongue. Great. He’s never dislocated anything before, but he hears it hurts like hell, and judging by the pain he’s already in, this is gonna be excruciating. He feels Spencer’s hands gently rest on his knee. Chloe is softly running her fingers through his hair while her other hand is gently placed on the crook of his neck.

  


He feels a tap on his shoulder and looks up. It's one of the other captains, Salem. He extends his hand and tells Jake, “I've done this before. Trust me, you're gonna want to hold onto someone. Squeeze my hand as tight as you want.”

  


Jake takes it, not even bothering to reply and holds tightly. Spencer moves his hands around a bit before saying, “ok, I'm gonna pop it back in on three.” Jake nods and glances to his right. Coach is standing only a yard away. He looks worried, but hides it well. Jake takes a deep breath and holds it.

  


Spencer counts quickly, “one, two, three.”

  


Just like that, Spencer puts some weird form of pressure on Jake’s knee, and is slides right back in. Jake is almost positive everyone could hear the pop. Jake yells in pain and squeezes Salem’s hand as hard as he can. It’s nothing compared to his knee, which feels foreign, like he was given a new knee but they didn't size it correctly or something like that.

  


He hears Spencer say, “I’ll be back.” Jake decides to close his eyes again and relaxes his whole body except for his knee. He feels Chloe pat his shoulder and say, “good job Jakey.”

  


Jake lays on the ground, acutely aware of how many eyes must be on him. He only hears a few side conversations, but other than that, the only noise is the grass crunching under their feet. Thankfully Salem is still standing to his side and is giving Jake’s face some shade. It’s hot, which isn’t unusual, but laying down for a while has caused his body to practically bake, which isn’t fun. He hopes he’s taken inside the field house and gets to sit in the nice air conditioning.

  


From the other side of the field, Jake hears a little engine roar. The guys start talking as it gets closer.

  


“Damn, he really just got that.”

  


“Can I drive?”

  


“Where did this come from?”

  


“Dreymon, tackle me, I wanna ride.”

  


Jake squints and turns his head at an awkward angle. He raises an eyebrow at this little golf cart combined with a lawn mower thing that doesn’t actually look like either of those things. It’s got no roof, two seats in the front and an open trunk, big enough to carry water jugs or a person. Oh.

  


As it pulls up, he hears the team start shuffling out of the way, and as it gets even closer, about half of the team yells, “MOVE!”

  


Jake opens his eyes and sees a junior holding up his hand while sprinting around Jake, “Jesus, Jesus, I’m moving.”

  


Spencer steps out of the cart and extends his hand to Jake. While he takes it, Salem grabs his other one and helps Spencer with assisting Jake to the back of the cart. Jake sits down on the edge and scoots back until his whole body is in the trunk. He looks at the team and makes a peace sign with his hands. Half of them return it. 

  


Chloe walks over to him, “it wasn’t that serious, you'll be doing more perfect 40s by Monday, I promise.” Jake smiles at her and gestures to the rest of the trunk, offering a ride. She raises an eyebrow at him, “um, no. I have to leave in like, five minutes? I ain't going to the trainers.”

  


“Where do you even need to go?” Jake crosses his arms, positive that it's either meeting Brooke at the nail salon or going to the mall with her step-aunt, Maya.

  


“I'm going to the mall with Maya, I need to get some back to school clothes.”

  


Jake rolls his eyes and waves her away. She pats his shoulder before heading back to the team to help set up for the next drill. Jake glances at the two seats in the front, and is surprised to see not only Spencer, but also Jeremy in the shotgun seat. Jeremy has on a purple t-shirt that says “MASA” on it and 26-27, last school year. Jeremy is also sporting orange shorts, pink tennis shoes, red sunglasses and - once again - a strong scent of sunscreen.

  


As Spencer starts up the cart and starts driving away, Jake places his arm along the little area between the trunk and the front two seats - the thing separating Jeremy and Jake - and says, “hey.”

  


Looking only a bit surprised by Jake’s approach, Jeremy turns his head only slightly and nods back. “Hey.” Jeremy turns his head back. Jake awkwardly looks away, so much for a conversation.

  


When they get back to the field house, Jake is helped out of the trunk and taken inside. He doesn't need as much help as before since his knee is back in place, but he can't walk normally yet so Jeremy and Spencer act as crutches for him. Jake thinks it's kind of funny at the height differences. Coach Spencer is just as tall as Jake, but Jeremy is about a full four inches shorter than them. Which is still tall, but not as tall as most of the football team, and Chloe.

  


Jeremy opens the door for them and they walk into the Field House, which is also commonly called the trainer’s. All of the student trainers have their stuff in here and Coach Spencer’s office is in the back. The rest of the place is a weight room, a boys locker room, a nurse-like room and storage.

  


But if there’s one thing that Jake loves the most about the field house, it's the air conditioning.

  


As they walk in a gust of air goes flying straight at Jake, which feels absolutely amazing. For a normal person it would feel like walking into an ice chest, but for anyone who’s been playing outside, it’s heaven.

  


Jake is taken to the nurse-like room that he mentioned before and sits down on a bed. It's not an actual bed, it's doesn't have a mattress. The ‘bed’ is made to be laid on by people who are in a lot of pain.

  


And Jake is not an exception to that rule.

  


Coach Spencer sits down in front of Jake and checks out his knee. Jeremy stands behind, not very close, and watches Spencer.

  


“Yeah, it's already bruising a bit. It’ll be at its worst tomorrow. The coloring will be all black and blue.” Jake nods. Spencer holds Jake's ankle and bends his knee gently. Jake winces only slightly. “Does it hurt?”

  


“Only a bit.” Jake is getting used to the pain by now. He won't be able to drive himself home. Shoot. His parents aren't home. Jake quickly pulls out his phone and texts Rich.

  
  
  


_ Yo dude I hurt my knee. I won't be able to drive myself home :(((( _

_ Could u give me a lift?. _

  


_ Fireball (*trumpet plays*):wtf. How do you even manage to do that. _

  


_ IDKK _

  


_ Fireball (*trumpet plays*):lol wow. Ok yeah I can pick u up. My dad passed out pretty early today, so I took his car. I'm at whole foods rn. _

  
  
  


Jake raises an eyebrow.

  
  
  


_ Why?? _

  


_ Fireball (*trumpet plays*):quality food, means all of their samples are the best. _

  


_ Ok then… _

_ Thnx. Pick me up whenever u leave. _

  


_ Fireball (*trumpet plays*): np _

  
  
  


“Jake?”

  


Looking up, Jake meets eyes with Jeremy. Spencer is gone. Jake asks, “where’d Spencer go?”

  


“He said that he felt like I could do the rest since all this is pretty simple. You were texting when he stepped out.” Jake smiles nervously. Jeremy doesn't sound like he's trying to be accusatory, but it's hard to tell. Jeremy's got this thing with his face. Makes him a bit hard to read, from what Jake can tell.

  


Jeremy sits down on the chair behind him and reaches down into a bag on the floor. He pulls out this thing that Jake still doesn't know the name of. It's something you wrap around a person's knee or wrist to hold it in place. It's not exactly a cast, but it's similar. Like a thinner version. Now that he think about it, Jake doesn't know a lot of thing’s names. Like the bed thing he’s sitting on. Wait, no. He remembers, this thing is called a cot. Maybe…

  


“Have you worn one before?”

  


Jake zones back into reality and asks, “what before?”

  


Jeremy shakes the thing in his hand and raises an eyebrow. Jake realizes what he means and nods his head as soon as he does, “oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes, I've worn that before. Well, not that one specifically, obviously, but-”

  


“I know what you mean.” Jeremy monotonically cuts him off. “There's a whole bunch of sizes here, so if you don't have one at home or anything you can use them.” Jeremy crosses his ankles and pushes his hair back. He’s not sweating, which feels a bit embarrassing for Jake, since he's practically soaking in his own sweat.

  


Jake glances at the bag with the sort of knee braces and nods, “yeah, I actually don't have anything at home, so I need to borrow. I'm a size large.”

  


Jeremy nods and reaches into his bag, shuffling around a bit before pulling out a size large. He stands up and makes his way over to Jake. He kicks the spinning chair in front of Jake and sits down on it. Jake stares for a second, not completely sure what's happening, but then has an ‘ah ha!’ moment and moves his injured knee in front of Jeremy.

  


The knee brace’s fabric is cool against Jake’s bruised skin. It only trickles with pain as Jeremy slides it on. Jeremy puts it on quickly, latching it and gently pushing against it to make sure it’s tight enough. He stands up and tells Jake, “if it starts bothering you, see a professional doctor. And don't drive yourself home.”

  


Jake holds up his phone, “I got a ride. It's all good.”

  


Jeremy nods and walks to a backpack in the corner. He squats and zips it up while Jake bends and extends his knee. His knee feels like a rusty pipe as he moves it. He awkwardly glances around the place, hoping for some escape from the awkward. Jeremy's going through the stuff in his bag, crouched on the ground, which gives Jake a perfect view of the back of his shirt. He gazes at the slightly worn out white ‘MASA,’ which reminds Jake of the space station, but it's probably not NASA, seeing how NASA is in Texas and Florida.

  


“What's MASA?”

  


Jeremy turns around and raises an eyebrow. “MASA?”

  


Jake gestures at Jeremy, “you know, the thing on your shirt.”

  


“Oh,” Jeremy nods, “yeah, MASA. It's the math and science academy.” He stands up and swings his bag on.

  


Nodding, Jake asks, “don't you have to be like, really smart to get into it?”

  


Jeremy shrugs. “Not necessarily. You need to take an admittance test and not have like, any disciplinaries, but that's it.” Jeremy pushes his bangs out of his face, “I figured since I was gonna go to MiddleBorough, I might as well try to get in.”

  


Jake places his phone next to him and folds his hands together. “I heard you need to take a whole bunch of hard classes and volunteer and stuff like that.”

  


Jeremy crosses his arms and leans on his right foot. “Yeah it's required to take two sciences or two maths each year. We don't volunteer as much as other places. They really want us to be studying.”

  


Jake chuckles, “yeah that makes sense. I know this guy who's always studying in the library in the morning, during lunch and sometimes after school. He's trying to get a scholarship and it's really hard to compete with the Asian kids.”

  


Jeremy narrows his eyes, “are you talking about Andrew?”

  


Jake snaps his fingers and shoots finger guns at him, “yeah. You know him?”

  


“Yep. He's been in my physics and chemistry classes. Real sweet guy.”

  


Jake nods his head, “coolio.”

  


Jeremy grabs ahold of his backpack straps and rocks back and forth on his feet. For the first time today, Jake can see that he's a bit nervous. The tip of his shoes are moving rapidly up and down, which must be because Jeremy's toes are dancing.

  


Jeremy opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. He shuts it for a second before quickly and saying, “I quit. MASA. I quit MASA for this year.”

  


“Why?” Jake tilts his head to the side as Jeremy lets go of the straps on his backpack and wipes his hands off on his shorts.

  


“It became a bit much. I had a really hard time trying to juggle all the classes and being a manager and being a part of the play. It really stressed me out.”

  


“Oh! You were in the play? I was in the play sophomore year!” Jake smiles, glad to finally find something that they have in common. “We did, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, I was Schroeder.”

  


Jeremy doesn't react the way Jake expected. He purses his lip and slowly replies, “I've been in every single play since freshman year.”

  


Jake’s face drops in total embarrassment. He leans down and places his face in his hands. Through his fingers, Jake says, “I am so sorry.”

  


He peaks back up. Jeremy is shaking his head, “it's fine. I was really quiet back then. Plus, I didn't have a very big part.” He pushes his bangs back again, shifting them to the right side of his head. Jake tries to suppress a laugh as Jeremy's bangs inevitably start falling back down.

  


Jeremy glances around the room one last time before saying, “ok, I'm gonna go now.”

  


“See ya.” Jake salutes as Jeremy walks out of the room.

  


Jake lets himself fall onto the cot as he sighs. He stares the ceiling for only a few minutes before taking out his phone and texting Rich.

  
  
  


_ hey do u happen to have a yearbook from sophomore year? _

  


_ Fireball (*trumpet plays*): u know I don't  _

  


_ Fireball (*trumpet plays*): why?? _

  


_ nvm _

_ I just wanted to look someone up _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw guys, Salem is pronounced Sah - Leh - mm.
> 
> And also Jeremy was in the math and science academy because MiddleBorough is the school in the district that has it, so a lot of kids end up moving there for the math and science academy. Jeremy was going there anyway so he was "ehh, why not?"


	3. Stop Scaring Me

The day before the first day of school probably wasn't the greatest time to grab some beers from Rich’s dad’s fridge and watch a horror movie drunk, but Rich though it was a good idea so he went along with it.

Thankfully the theatre is mostly empty, besides a couple sitting in the top corner of the room. Jake and Rich quickly decide that the closer they are to the screen the more scary it's gonna be, (which is the goal) so they sit in the second row. Jake follows Rich to the center and quickly sits down.

“When should we start drinking?”

Rich scoffs and pulls two beers out, “now.”

It’s not the thing about drinking in a theatre and getting scared shitless that he likes doing, God, Jake hates horror movies, more than anything. The only thing that lets him get through it is beer, and ever since sophomore year Rich has wanted to do this. He invited the entire football team once (only Jake and the Seniors went). Sadly Jake’s immunity to getting drunk has built up over the years and leaves him sorely sober for half of the jump scares. There’s another downside, seeing as Jake’s bladder hasn’t gotten much bigger over the years, so if he drink enough to get completely wasted he usually ends up pissing his own pants. Happened way too many times. So, why does Jake even bother going to these things? They never end up with Jake being happy in any way.

Jake keeps his eyes trained on Rich as his best friend chugs three beers in less than a minute, then proceeds to collapse as he lazily opens the next one. He’s got the widest grin and brightest eyes, and it’s not because they’re reflecting light off of the movie screen.

Oh yeah, that’s why he does this.

Jake grabs from the 12-pack of beer and chugs. It’s awful. God awful. Jake can’t help but gag when it touches his mouth. Rich’s dad has always been too drunk to even think about the flavor, so stealing from him is never their first choice. Sadly, neither of them have much money and stealing is a lot cheaper than buying.

So the first one is gone like that, and Jake is already regretting not convincing Rich to see a ridiculous rom-com instead of this horror-movie crap. He doesn’t know why Rich is so obsessed with getting scared. He once tried to ask Rich about it, but he was way too drunk to answer. Rich also has an obsession with getting drunk, but that was never a surprise to Jake.

The movie starts after a boatload of trailers and ads and something about ‘ _shut off your exits, and locate your nearest phone._ ’

Rich has his feet propped up, and the other beer case in his lap. He’s holding onto the beer can he’s finishing with a white-knuckle type grip. It’s uncomfortable to watch. Rich’s empty beer cans are strewn on the floor, as if he owns the place and Jake knows that he’s not gonna pick them up when the movie is over. Jake probably isn’t either, therefore, he must pick them up before they’re both incredibly wasted.

A large plastic grocery store bag is soon full of the six beers they’ve gone through. What can he say? Jake comes prepared.

It's terrifying until everything becomes light and dizzy. After he gets drunk, the movie begins to feel like a crappy nightmare. Darkness becomes black holes and colors turn vibrant. The jump scares are even worse, but he gets over them quickly, forgetting what happened five seconds ago.

Rich very loudly hooks his arm around Jake’s neck and whispers in his ear, “yo, that bitch,” he points at the girl on screen right now, “is gonna die in ten minutes, max.”

Jake, not feeling like protesting, and not really caring enough to protest, agrees with him. But, Rich does sort of wake him up, so Jake quickly realizes that he needs to take a piss. He tells Rich where he's going and stumbles out of the theatre. The large halls feel small and the air conditioning is freezing him. When he gets to the bathroom, he tries to appear less drunk and walks slower, careful not to trip. He doubts anybody is in the bathroom of a movie theatre at 12 am, but you never know.

Peeing in the urinal is a bit trippy, but he manages to aim well enough. It all goes in, thank god, and he quickly zips up and goes to wash his hands.

Another tall guy in a hoodie is washing his hands. He finishes as Jake steps up. Jake doesn't realize the other guy is giving him a funny look as Jake washes and he dries. Too drunk to realize, Jake finishes washing his hands and goes to the dryer, only to be stopped by the guy. Jake looks up.

Ryu, basketball team. Tallest guy in school. Sometimes a jerk but most of the time he's chill. Jake tilts his head and smiles. “Hey man, how's it going?”

Ryu chuckles, “man I'm great, how are _you_ , and what are you doing here?”

Jake feels like he's being condescending, but he can't tell, so he just makes his way around Ryu to the hand-dryer. “I'm here with Rich, watching the new horror movie.”

“And nobody else?”

Jake drops his hands when the dryer turns off. “Yeah.”

“Gay.” They both chuckle. Jake has his back to the drier and Ryu only one foot in front of him, and if he wasn't thinking any better, he would think that Ryu is trying to keep him from leaving, but he ignores that as well. What's he gonna do?

“Are you on a date with Rich?” Jake blinks at the question. That was random.

He laughs, “what? No. I have tastes man.” They laugh again, but it feel more forced this time. Ryu has his arms crossed, his dark jacket building his frame to make him look like he's bigger than he is.

“Hey, you can tell me, I won't judge.”

Jake shakes his head, not believing Ryu in the slightest, “we're not on a date.”

“So you're gay?”

Jake, annoyed now, shakes his head confused, “I just said I'm not on a date with Rich, why're you asking that? Plus, I've had many girlfriends, you know this. I've dated _your_ girlfriend before.” Yeah it was a cheap shot but it hits, Ryu is visibly annoyed, as much as Jake can tell. Sadly, his slightly slurred speech makes the delivery less intense. Ryu’s current girlfriend, Rocka, dated Jake second longest after Chloe out of all his girlfriends. Admittedly, it was more of a friends with benefits situation, but they still called it dating.

“I think it's just weird how you always go to these movies with Rich just to get shit-faced. Can't you do that at home? Or at a party?”

Jake frowns, “I'm not shit-faced.” He lies, yeah, because he knows that people love taking advantage of drunk people.

Ryu gives his an unimpressed face. “C'mon man, don't lie to me, your not very good at hiding it.” Ryu flicks the t in ‘it’ in Jake’s face.

Jake rolls his eyes, not sure where Ryu is taking this. “Fine, I'm drunk. But, this is not a date. Rich literally texted me like, an hour ago saying no one else wanted to go, and I was his last option, what was I gonna say? He's my best friend.” That's a lie as well, he was the first one Rich texted. Jake is always the first one Rich texts.

“So you just like getting illegally drunk in a public place with your best friend?”

Jake, pissed off now, snaps back, “yeah, I guess I do.”

Ryu smirks. Jake looks down. In Ryu’s right hand is his phone, the camera facing at Jake. He recorded the whole thing. Ryu starts to walk out.

“Delete that video man! I'm serious!”

“I'm sure you are,” is all Ryu answers as he leaves the bathroom. Jake stands there for a second, not sure how to comprehend it, and feeling like he has to pee again. He walks out of the bathroom and looks around. Ryu is gone. Jake runs his hand through his hair and sighs. Let it pass. Nothing bad is gonna happen. He walks back to the theatre with Rich.

***

About 30 minutes after the movie ends, Jake finds himself and Rich stumbling through a little neighborhood behind his old Elementary school. It’s around two am and the sky is orange. Maybe it’s because he’s drunk right now, or maybe because the street lamps are lighting up the sky. Anyway, Jake is really tired and just wants to go home. Sadly, Rich insisted that they gotta check out something.

“Man, we have school tomorrow, and I have to make Nakala’s lunch for tomorrow and make sure she gets on the bus. And if I’m going to school tomorrow I ain’t going hung-over _and_ exhausted!”

Rich smacks his chest, “get over yourself, we’ve both done this millions of times before. Plus, this isn’t gonna take long.”

He grabs Jake’s shirt and drags him a little faster down the middle of the neighborhood street. When they reach the end of the street, instead of turning left, they continue onto the sidewalk and onto the grass.

“Uh, Rich?”

Rich stops and gestures between the two house. A little path is between the two. He follows Rich as they quietly walk between the houses. Jake stumbles a bit, but manages to stay on his feet. They get past the houses’ backyards and Jake raises his eyebrow at what he sees.

A graveyard.

“Rich, what are we doing here?”

Rich keeps walking with Jake behind him until they get to the fence. For a moment, Jake thinks that he's gonna climb over it, but instead Rich grabs the lock and opens it. He turns to Jake, “it's never locked, the guy who runs this place is lazy as hell.”

Jake barely nods as Rich slides the creaky gate open and walks in. Jake’s never been here before. He didn't even know it existed. He begins following Rich, not knowing what's his best friend's plan.

The graveyard is relatively clean. It's got a bunch of dead flowers everywhere, but no trash or anything like that. Someone must take pretty good care of this place. The headstones are all short. Maybe half a foot tall. Lots of crosses liter the place though. Just about every five feet Jake steps on a rosemary.

Rich seems to know exactly where he's going, which is odd because Rich never knows where he's going, especially when he's drunk. He probably took Jake here to creep him out after the horror movie.

After two minutes of walking, they stop at a tall tree. It's an oak tree and it must be super old. About a yard in front of the tree is a headstone. Rich slumps down against the tree, between the trunk and the small headstone. Jake stops next to him, still standing and confused. “What're we doing here?”

Rich sighs and sharply pulls down on Jake's arm. Jake sits next to him and waits for a response. Rich isn't one to be quiet while drunk, so there must be something.

“I just, like this tree. It's nice.” Rich's voice is gentle. He keeps his eyes trained to the grass. Jake settles in against the tree intent on listening. “My mom was friends with the guy who owns this place. She would come by to talk to him a lot, and would bring me along. One day she showed me this tree and we climbed it and had a lot of fun.”

“Your mom brought you to a graveyard for fun?”

Rich shrugs, a smile on his face. “She was a weird lady. Plus, it might've been around Halloween time, I'm not sure.”

Jake nods. “Well, she must've been pretty smart too, because-” Jake looks straight up at the tree, admiring it's long and full branches and the soft leaves that are green even when the sun isn't shining on it, “because this tree is the shit. And I'm not even joking.”

A light slap to the stomach brings Jake's face back to Rich. He's shaking his head. But he's smiling. Jake asks, “did Nathan come with you?”

Rich shakes his head, “nah, just me and mom. Nathan was always busy with his friends or whatever. He started ditching me for his friends when he was like, two.”

“You weren't alive at the time.”

“Exactly!”

They both laugh. Jake bumps his head against the tree, but it doesn't hurt. He scoots back a bit more to have more of his back against the tree. “Speaking of Nathan, how is he?”

Rich wipes his forehead before answering, suddenly not looking too hot. “Yeah, I'm not sure. I haven't got any letters back. Can't really blame him though, why would you want to let your brother know that you're alive while you're fighting a war in some piece-of-shit middle eastern country.” Jake frowns. He knows that Rich really, really misses his brother, and the army can be an asshole when it comes to letting letters come through.

As far as Jake's been told, Nathan left home for the army straight out of high school, leaving Rich to deal with his dad by himself. Nathan did it because he was never gonna afford any other kind of schooling. He did it for himself, it what Rich told Jake, but Jake thinks that Nathan did it for both of them.

“I don't know, it's kind of my fault too. I haven't sent a letter in a while. Dad tore it up when he caught me writing it, said some crap about him already being dead.”

Jake can't handle it anymore. He leans to his side and wraps his arms around Rich's neck, burying his face in the crook of Rich’s neck. It takes a few moments for Rich to react, but he finally leans his head onto Jake, letting Jake support him.

It took a while for Rich to come around to Jake giving him displays of any kind of affection, even though they're only friendly displays. When they first became familiar with each other, Jake kept his distance, sure not to make him feel weird and only gave high fives and hand shakes. Soon enough, Jake started slinging his arm around Rich's shoulder, leaning against him and generally standing closer. The first time he hugged Rich, the reaction wasn't well. But, Rich learned that Jake wasn't gay or anything and eventually got used to it.

Jake's that way with everyone. He once accidentally destroyed a friendship because he made the guy think he was gay for him. He was named, most likely to fall asleep with teddy bears at Target at the end of the football season sophomore year.

When they pull away, Jake asks Rich, “how about you stay at my place tonight?”

Rich, shrugs. “Why not?”

He gets up and starts walking the the front exit, “c’mon man, I can't wait to sleep on your parents’ bed.”

Jake quickly gets up to follow. “We both know that you're sleeping on the couch you asshole!”

When they get to the gate, Jake gets a sinking feeling and reaches for his back pocket. “Shit. I dropped my phone.”

Rich leans against the gate. “Yeah, shit. Do you think you left it at the theatre?”

Jake shakes his head, already walking backwards, “no I had it when we were at the tree, I'll be right back!” Rich salutes as Jake jogs back to the tree. He gets there swiftly and leans down, finding it next to a big root. Jake checks to see if there's any cracks before walking back, but, he's stopped short when he trips over something behind him and falls flat on his ass.

Scrambling to his feet, Jake looks down to see what was there. It's a gravestone, the one he and Rich sat behind not two minutes ago. He kneels down to see who tripped him.

Julia Goranski.

Jake's eyes soften. He bows his head and decides to do a quick prayer to Rich's mom. It's interrupted by Rich yelling, “hurry up!” He ends it and heads back.

“Let's head home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this isn't a RichJake fic.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed! Summer is coming up soon, so I hope that I'll be able to update more frequently.


	4. Boba Friends

“Panthers on three! One, two, three, Panthers!”

Everyone throws their hands in the air and starts tiredly walking off the field. Jake starts walking to the back of the field to pick up cones and some balls. Sadly the Varsity football team doesn't have any freshman so the Captains are left to clean up after practice. Thankfully everyone else has to clean up after games.

Jake carries all of the cones down to the ball bag and carries it inside the field house. The place is silent aside from the AC, he drops the cones and balls in the storage closet. Jake sighs. God, school isn't doing it for him.

He is happy with most of his classes, which is always good, but sadly he has English, then Government, then Science, which means he'll be running across school everyday. He has Algebra II first period and that royally sucks because he is awful at all versions of math and will not be able to focus at 7:30 am.

But, there are other good things. Chloe is in three of his classes. Rich shares two classes with him. Jenna and Brooke are in his English class. They also all have lunch together. Lots of guys on the team are in his classes as well. Actually a lot of his friends are in his classes, which makes sense because he is friends with a lot of people.

Now that Jake knows who Jeremy is, he sees him a whole lot more. He was the first person Jake saw when he entered his government class. That's the only class they share, but Jake is grateful. Jeremy looked bored when he entered, almost like he wasn't looking for anyone to talk to. Jake didn't realize it at the time though.

_“Anyone sitting here?” Jeremy looks up from his phone, surprised that Jake was standing there. He freezes a second before smiling and shaking his head. Jake smiles as well and slides his backpack off as he sits down in the seat next to Jeremy. They're sitting in groups of four, and the other two seats are empty so far._

_Jeremy closes his phone and turns to Jake. “Let me see your schedule.”_

Only one other girl ended up sitting at their table, and she looked terrified, so Jake didn't greet her. Must've been a newbie. He doesn't know anyone else in the class, so he found himself praying that there are no assigned seats.

And God answered because the teacher walked in and within five minutes told them that they're allowed to sit wherever they want throughout the year.

Anyway, Jake is happy with all of his classes except for Algebra II. So he'll call that a win for Senior year. He grabs his backpack and heads to his car. He's heading to Boba Bar, which is across the street from the school, because he is in need of tea and has a free night. Nakala is staying at her friend’s house for a sleepover. Sure, he's got homework, but he can save that for the weekend.

He drives to Boba Bar, peacefully listening to no music, just the outside world, and gets out of the car as soon as he parks, his wallet in his pocket. Jake pulls on his shirt to fan himself as he walks, hating how sweaty he is, and hating how incredibly hot it is.

Boba is cool and air conditioned and smells amazing. He approaches the counter and orders a caramel tea without boba. Strange, right? Jake loves everything about Boba except for the actual boba balls. He stands at the counter, waiting for them to make it and glances around. The place is fairly empty. There’s a man in a suit sitting at a table, waiting as well. In the corner, where the booths are, there are quiet murmurs.

Boba bar is apart of the strip mall that’s across the street from MiddleBorough. There used to be a Subway here but it moved, which is a shame because now the only food choices are donuts, boba tea, or cafes. Nothing healthy for student athletes. Well, there’s actually a Taco place and Sonic a little bit down the road, but Jake, along with the rest of the student body, don’t usually go down there. A) Soliz Tacos closes at 2:30, and school ends at 2:45, and B) Sonic food sucks.

Jake’s phone buzzes and he takes it out to see that Chloe sent him a snap. It’s a selfie of her and Katrina at Starbucks, which is right around the corner. It’s captioned, _u want anything? I can get nakala sm 2._

In return, Jake turns around and takes a selfie of himself with the counter behind him with him holding up the peace sign. He types back _nah im at boba, naka’s at a sleepover rn._

He puts his phone away as his name is called and his tea is placed on the counter. He grabs it and also a straw. He pokes a hole through the center and glances around the place, looking for a comfortable place to sit. He glances at the back again and sees that one of the booths is empty so he begins walking there.

As Jake passes the first booth he wills himself to not look at the people in it. He doesn’t really wanna start a conversation with someone he barely knows or make someone very uncomfortable.

But that’s ruined when his name is called from the table. He turns and smiles to see that Christine called his name. She smiles and waves at him, so he steps closer and replies, “hey, how’s it going.” Thankfully, Jake actually enjoys being around Chris. Well, they used to be close, then they were incredibly close, but then things were ruined between them, but now they’re good friends.

They dated last year, and it was actually really nice. He had himself thinking that they were gonna be one of those couples that lasted all the way until college. But, his relationship with Chloe was really complicated at the time, and he drank a lot last year and he was a real jerk to her at last year’s Halloween party. It seemed like by the time he was wasted he had permanently destroyed any chance of them staying together. It was one of the relationships that he had, where he knew that he was at fault. She broke up with him, obviously, but after winter break when they had health together, he managed to apologize and gain his friendship with her back.

Anyway, she’s sitting next to a guy that Jake doesn’t know. He’s got a big red hoodie on and a pair of white headphones are around his neck. There’s a laptop in front of him and an array of empty cups surrounding him.

Jake looks left and breaks into an even wider smile. “Jeremy!”

Jeremy doesn't look up from his phone, Jake raises an eyebrow and sees that he's intensely focused on some very fast game on his phone. He's got headphones in.

Christine giggles, “he's playing Geometry Dash. He gets very into it, just wait for him to die. Sit down, he won't even notice.”

Jake freezes for a moment, surprised at the invitation, but nods his head and slides into the other side of the booth with Jeremy, careful not to bump into him. He gives Jeremy a once-over and is a bit perplexed at his outfit. Jeremy has a Nirvana shirt on, with a camo jacket over it. He's got on high waisted, light jeans and, from what Jake can tell, shoelaceless converse. On his jacket arm is a Mexican flag patch.

Jake turns to Christine, and sees that she has a book open in front of her. Along with that, she has on a floral tank top and a matching headband. Very much her style. She moves it to her lap while keeping her page with her thumb. She tilts her head to her left, gesturing at laptop guy and introduces him. “This is Michael. Michael, this is Jake.”

Michael looks up and makes eye contact for the first time. They're across from each other, so Jake can see how dark his eyes are, enough to make someone think they're black. Michael smiles, “yeah I know who he is. Nice to meet you. I'm Jeremy and Christine’s best friend, and you'll be seeing me a lot this year.”

“Why?”

“Well, I'll be-”

“ _Goddammit_!”

Jake flinches as Jeremy loudly screams that. He places a hand on his heart as Jeremy rips out his headphones and slams his phone on the table. Christine sharply whispers, “could you be any louder?” She turns around and apologizes to the employees.

Jeremy finally turns and realizes that Jake is sitting next to him. His eyes go wide for a second before blinking and awkwardly poking his arm. Jake scrunches his lips. “Yep, I'm real.”

“Yeah, I just had to make sure,” Jeremy giggles. God, he sounds just like Chris when she laughs. “When did you get here?”

“Like, two minutes ago. You didn't hear me when I said your name.”

Jeremy nods, “sorry.”

Christine interjects before Jake can, “oh please, nobody's mad at you. Now, Jake, what are you doing here?”

He holds up his drink, “uh, same as you?”

Christine fervently replies, “you're practicing your monologue lines for your lesbian girlfriend’s birthday, which is tomorrow?”

Oh right, Jake totally forgot about that. He was never told in person but he saw on Christine’s snapchat around the middle of summer, that she was posting pictures and videos of her and this one girl at her drama camp. She's an India girl and is very beautiful, so it wasn't a surprise when Christine posted on her story a couple week later that they started dating. Christine is an out and proud bisexual and has dated more people than Jake realized.

Jake blinks and Christine laughs. Michael elbows her and Jeremy shakes his head, “don't be so mean to him,” Jeremy pats his shoulder and speaks in a baby voice, “he doesn't understand what sarcasm is.”

Letting the joke go completely over his head, Jake beams at Jeremy as he pats his shoulder. Jeremy’s touch is soft and reminds him of his little sister, because both of their hands are so small. Of course they're different in about every other way. Nakala is the coolest and most chill person ever and Jeremy looks like an anxiety factory, even in the slumped sitting position he's in.

Jake asks, “hey, um, why's the Mexican flag on your sleeve?”

It's Jeremy's turn to raise an eyebrow now. He looks down at his sleeve as if he forgot it was their. He answers, “because I'm Mexican.”

Jake straight up responds, “what?”

Thankfully though, he's not alone on this. Michael exclaims, “I know right! He's the palest sheet of paper I've ever seen and yet half of his genes tell me he should be at the _very_ least tan. It's so goddamn funny because sometimes even _I_ forget that he's not fully white.”

Christine jumps in, “oh yeah, when I heard him speaking Spanish fluently for the first time I thought I was having a stroke!” Both of them sound so aggressive and happy at the same time, it's confusing Jake. He looks to Jeremy again, who is slumped in his chair and rubbing the back of his neck.

Jeremy looks up at Jake and says, “my mom is Mexican and my dad is white.”

Jake nods. There are many mixed kids at school, so this doesn't surprise him in the slightest. Well, obviously Jeremy's skin color was a surprise but the fact that he has mixed heritage isn't, so he was surprised and not surprised at the same - oh whatever.

But now he can tell that he made Jeremy embarrassed, so he moves on with the topic. “Well, how was you guys summers?”

Christine speaks up quickly, “absolutely fantastic. Theatre camp was great this year, and I'm glad that in my final year at the camp, I got to play Dina from The Band’s Visit. Plus, I went with my little brothers to see three Broadway musicals! Sammy and Eli loved School of Rock, but Owen liked Mean Girls the most.” She pulls her hair into a ponytail while she's saying this. She's talking incredibly fast, it's a wonder that her mouth moves as fast as her mind.

“Oh, I also visited my cousin, who lives in North Carolina.” Jake nods, but notices the looks that Jeremy and Michael are giving her. She raises an eyebrow at them, “what?”

Michael slowly says, “and you met your girlfriend-”

“ _And I met my girlfriend_!”

Michael shakes his head. “Well, I went to the Philippines for like, three weeks and while I was there I realized how little Tagalog I speak. My mom hasn't been letting me speak to her if it's in English ever since.”

Jeremy leans closer to Jake and says, “Tagalog is the language spoken in the Philippines.” Jake nods his head, understanding now.

“And I played video games all summer. Toured some colleges to, but we all know I'm going to community college.”

Jake nods. He didn't tour any colleges this summer. His parents said they would, but it never happened. He got really close one time. They arranged it, wake up early, drive to three colleges, quickly do the tour, stop at a park so Nakala can have some fun too, then head home so mom and dad can be out of the house by midnight. But when Jake woke up the morning, the only thing they left was 500 dollars and a note. ‘Emergency, sorry. <3’

Needless to say, Jake was pissed.

Anyway, Michael is done talking, so Jake turns to Jeremy. He's leaning into the corner of the wall and the booth now. His shoulders are slumped to make him smaller. Jeremy shrugs, “my summer was fine. How was yours?”

Ok, Jeremy doesn't wanna talk about it, cool, cool. Jake can play it cool, he's good at conversations.

He stares at Jeremy, unable to say anything.

Jeremy meets his eyes for a second before tearing them away at the speed of light. Jake remains stoic. He can't think. Why can't he think of something to say? It's been too long, what was Jeremy's question?

Oh, right.

“Yeah, um, yeah, my summer was great. I drove up to New York with my sister and we went to M&M world, and went on the Statue of Liberty.” Jake shakes his face a bit, as if to rid himself on the jitters. God, that doesn't usually happen. Why couldn't he think of anything?

Michael nods, very much aware of the odd response from Jake, but ignores it and asks, “how was that? I went once when I was little, but I barely remember it.”

Jake shrugs, “it was fun. Nakala got upset when I told her that I wouldn't carry her while we walked up. We only walked up to the platform thing that the Statue stands on. We didn't actually go up to the crown. Anyway, while we were walking up we learned that inside they're actually these giant bands that hold it together. It's like super bendy metal. Nakala had a blast shaking them and making them ring.”

Chris smiles, “sounds like fun.”

Jake nods. They fall silent for a moment. Jeremy seems focused on keeping his straw in his mouth while Michael returns to his computer. Christine doesn't go back to her monologue, probably trying to keep Jake feeling included, but no words come from her mouth. Jake slumps back a bit and sips his tea.

Christine sits up quickly, idea coming to her mind. “Michael, you forgot to tell Jake why you'll be seeing him so much this year.”

Michael looks up, “oh yeah.” He turns to Jake, “I'll be taking photos of the football team for the yearbook and district website this year. I volunteered to go to like, all of your games.”

He smiles at Michael, “that's so cool man. How long have you been doing that?”

“Just this year. It's what I'm doing on here,” he gestures to his laptop. “I had to photograph everyone for the first day of school photos. I think I took like 400 photos that day. I'm sorting through all of them right now. Seeing if I can make the good ones look even better.”

Jake sputters, “why did you take so many?”

Michael shrugs, “it's better to get a lot of choices than only a few. Plus, a bunch of people stopped to pose for photos. More than usual. Everyone had their back-to-school clothes on so if they're going to be in the yearbook, they're going to want to look good.”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Hey, make sure to take some good ones of me.”

Michael salutes, “can do.” He sips his basically empty tea, “I signed up for all the games mostly because Jeremy will be there too, and also because I have no life.”

They all chuckles at that. Christine replies, “yeah, so that means I'm the only person at this table that has to pay to watch the game.”

“Hey, I'll be doing important work!”

Chris rolls her eyes, “yeah, squirting water into all the players mouths is a real service to the team.”

Jeremy leans closer to her, as if to playfully intimidate her, “I actually have to help when anyone on the team gets injured, so yes, I actually do a real service to the team.”

Michael waves him off, not tearing his eyes from his laptop, “isn't there like, ten other students that can do your job for you?”

“Hey, there's only four other trainers and compared to the ones that I actually know, Jeremy is the best one at it. Admittedly, he was the most calm person around when I dislocated my knee like, two weeks ago. Well, Chloe was the most calm, but that was because she just didn't care.” Jake smiles, because Chloe would be squalling at him, but she ain't here so she can't say nothing.

Christine just about chokes on her tea. “You dislocated your knee! The football team’s star player dislocated his knee!”

Jake’s cheeks heat up, “I wouldn't say I'm the star player.”

Michael scoffs, “please, you totally are. But besides that, how did you dislocate your knee!”

He shrugs, “I don't know, I landed on it wrong. It wasn't that big of a deal.”

Christine slams her hands on the table, startling them all, “how is dislocating your knee not serious! I'm worried! Are we gonna get to play-offs this year?!”

Woah, Jake did not know that she cared that much about football. Well, maybe she’s just excited for him or other people. She always gets passionate about things other people are passionate about, it's one of the reasons Jake dated her.

Jeremy places a calm hand on Christine’s, “look, knee dislocations can vary in how harshly and how far Jake's kneecap popped out. Thankfully, it wasn't that rough, so he recovered within a week and he's all good now.”

Christine lowers herself back to her seat, losing the crazy look in her eyes. “Ok, yeah, good. Sorry for the freak out.”

All boys at the table shake their heads. “You're fine,” says Jeremy and Michael simultaneously.

Michael reaches his hand in his pocket and pulls out a…chewed up pencil. Michael looks at it with disgust, only holding it by the tips of his fingers. Jeremy and Christine cringe and Jake rolls his eyes. Gross.

He drops the pencil unceremoniously on the table and wipes his fingers off with a napkin. Jeremy shakes his head, “real classy soulmate you got there.”

Michael shakes his head and turns back to his computer. Christine pats him on the shoulder. Jake asks, “do you get stuff like that often? Like chewed up stuff?”

Not looking up, Michael replies, “yeah, stuff like that. My soulmate is the most disgusting person ever. Do you know how many times I've gotten tissues in my pockets? Too many.”

“Admittedly though most of them are bloody tissues, which is a lot better than snot tissues.” Jeremy interjects.

Jake cringes at that, but Christine counters it, interrupting Michael in the process. “Yeah, but it's still disgusting, his soulmate really needs to stop being a slob. I, for one, know that I would never date someone who randomly misplaces tissues everywhere.” Christine shivers, as if to shake herself from the thought. She turns to Jake again and explains, “we’ve deducted that Michael's soulmate is an utter and complete slob and if they were to ever meet, then Michael would tell them what to change, or else they will never date. Oh, and also they have really bad nosebleeds.”

“That's quite a plan. What if they are just really forgetful, or they have a disorder?”

Michael says, “then I would help them, it's not that bad of an issue as other things. And maybe my soulmate won't even want to meet me. I mean, Christine’s in a happy relationship with someone who isn't her soulmate and my moms aren't soulmates.”

Jake nods, catching Jeremy's hard look being sent right to Michael. Don't know what that's about.

Christine shrugs, “you never know. I mean, I'm also not that dependent on my soulmate. I only get a small amount of items from them. Usually socks. I know that my soulmate has big feet, so they're probably really tall. That's all that I can tell though.”

Jake nods, “well, I don't lose my stuff, not the important things.” It's probably really good that he has only two or three precious that would tell his soulmate everything about him. His ADHD makes him lose all of the other stuff that he has.

On the flip side of that, his soulmate loses lots of stuff. She once lost her house key, and Jake panicked so much that he ended up throwing it away because it's terrifying to think that he could go into her house whenever he wanted. She's also lost multiple purses (all with little to nothing in them), a towel and a pastel pink Polaroid camera.

Jeremy snorts and bumps shoulders with Jake, “maybe you're my soulmate then, because I've gotten zip.”

And as if an alarm went off underneath Jeremy's curls, he drops the lazy smile and scoots away from Jake until he's pressed against the wall. Jake shrugs and says, “yeah, maybe,” trying play if off and say ‘hey I'm totally cool with the joke and you didn't make me uncomfortable at all’ but it didn't seem to do much.

While Michael and Christine look at each other as if the other one knows what's going on, but just turns back to Jake and Jeremy. Jake asks, “so, you've never gotten anything? That can't be true.”

Jeremy nods back, “true as hell, they might have lost something when I was a baby, but my parents checked my pockets and bedroom all the time, but nothing ever showed up. Plus, nothing ever appears in my pocket.”

Michael intervenes. “But, you know that there's been stories where three people are soulmates. So you might have two soulmates.”

Jeremy fires back, “but there's been plenty of stories of people who don't have a soulmate.”

“No, all of those studies have no info to back it up. Maybe those people just never met their soulmate.”

“Chris, like, 99 percent of people meet their soulmate at sometime in their life. Whether or not they get together is a different story. And also, two percent of people on earth don't have a soulmate. Math.”

Michael scoffs, “you made those statistics up!”

“They were in a New York Times article.”

“Well then the New York Times is bullshit!” Jake chuckles as Michael and Christine say that in almost harmony.

Jake waves his hand back and forth, “wait a minute. Three soulmates? I've never heard of that. And how does it make any sense for someone to get nothing when they have two soulmates? If anything shouldn't they get more?”

Michael shakes his head and leans on his elbows to explain. Christine pats his shoulder. “He's an expert at this. He googles the shit out all things soulmate.”

“So three soulmates is a tricky thing, because the universe is stupid and can't handle more than two things at a time. So, if the system for how lost things go to your soulmate made any sense, then person one's stuff would go to person two, person two’s stuff would go to person three, and person three’s stuff would go to person one. But that's not how it goes.”

Jake sips his empty drink as he listens, and Jeremy and Christine are both rolling their eyes at how much Michael knows about this.

Michael continues and ignores his best friends, “so the fucked system is, one person is the receiver between the two people. So say person two is in the middle, so they get all of the lost things from person one and three. But here's the thing, person two’s lost things only goes to one of their soulmates. Therefore, person one or three never gets anything back.”

Jake raises an eyebrow. “That's messed up.”

“Mhm.”

Jeremy shakes his head, “more likely that I just don't have a soulmate.”

Jake cuts in, “wait a minute, if you didn't have a soulmate, then you wouldn't lose stuff.” A few seconds before Jake realizes what he said and places his head in his hands while everyone else laughs. “I didn't realize what I said.”

Through his laughs, Jeremy snorts out, “yeah, I'm immune to losing my stuff because nobody's _cosmically_ connected to me.”

Jake smiles and shakes his head. Jeremy is still laughing and it feels so contagious, probably because he's right next to Jake. Jake laughs and laughs and only stops when Jeremy does.

He feels a buzz and pulls his phone out of his pocket. It's a text from Rich.

 

_Fireball (*trumpet plays*):dude r u home_

_no_

_Fireball (*trumpet plays*):do u have a spare key_

_no_

_why?_

_Fireball (*trumpet plays*):it's bad_

 

Jake pales. “Shit.”

All attention is turned to him. Chris asks, “what is it?”

 

_I'll be there asap_

 

He quickly grabs his stuff. “Little emergency at home. It's ok. Cool hanging with you guys.” They say bye and the last thing Jake sees of them is Jeremy's soft smile and tiny wave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls leave comments they are the fruit of my loins


	5. Stitches are for Snitches

Apartments are full of people all the time. Especially the ones that are filled with people who don't have jobs. People are constantly walking in and out of them, saying hi to neighbors, making conversation in the halls, and trying to get somewhere in the building.

So it wasn't a shock when Jake arrived at his apartment and had about ten people staring at him and, more importantly, Rich, hurriedly rushing inside, leaving a small puddle of blood on the floor.

Jake slams the door shut and rushes Rich to the kitchen table. He carefully helps Rich sit down and heads to the cabinet under the sink. He pulls out the first aid kit and takes deep breaths to slow his heart rate. Rich moans in pain and leans back in his chair. Jake carefully shakes his shoulder and asks, “can you take your shirt off?”

“You gonna take me out to dinner first?”

“Very funny.” Rich complies and carefully lifts his arms. Jake swiftly pulls off the shirt and winces. It's not good. 

“Don't cry for me, Argentina.”

Jake chuckles and shakes his head. The first time this happened, Jake was an emotional mess over Rich, he barely had any control of the situation, and Rich ended up having to apply bandages where they were necessary. But now Jake is more used to it, which is a shame, but he realized a while ago that the best thing he can do is stay calm.

Rich's a bloody mess. Pieces of glass are stuck all along his left side, where blood isn't covering, bruises make up for it. Rich’s right side is better but not by much. No glass, but there's belt welts. Jake’s fingertips skim them and makes eye contact with Rich’s dim, wooden eyes. “Maybe we should-”

“Don't you dare say ER.”

Jake purses his lips and moves to the sink to get out clean cloths and to wash his hands before he does anything. “Take off your pants dude.”

Rich does so without making a sexual joke. Jake moves back over to Rich with a bowl and a glass of warm water. Jake’s eyes trail down to Rich’s right thigh. Under his hip, a bright red patch extends to his knee. It's taking up a quarter of Rich's leg. He's about to comment when Rich pulls him out of his trance by grabbing the water and bowl out of his hands.

“Dude, no, let me.”

“Jake, it's fine. I'm awake, I'm not gonna pass out or anything serious. Plus, I've done this without you before.”

“Maybe that's why I should do it.”

Rich chuckles and holds on tightly to the bowl and glass. “Seriously man. I can do this myself.”

Jake backs off. “Ok got it.” Jake sits down at the table and pulls out his phone while Rich carefully pours water over the glass in his stomach, letting the water clear away the excess blood and bringing it into the empty bowl. 

He googles, ‘how to heal glass in stomach.’ The second option is what he clicks on. It tells him to call 911. He skips past that and reads, 1) remove the object that has created the puncture wound, 2) stop bleeding, 3) protect the wound, 4) treat pain, 5) follow-up. Ok he can’t do step 5, but he can do everything else. When he looks back up, Rich places the bowl of bloody water and empty glass on the table.

“Wow, I mean I would like a bit of help but if your phone matters more than me…”

Jake smiles and places his phone down. “Shut up. Ok, so let's see.” He inspects the glass in Rich's stomach. Most of the glass is only about half an inch long or less. “I'm gonna have to take out the glass.”

Rich nods, “just get it over with.”

Jake starts pulling them out, careful to not hurt Rich anymore. He's keeping a straight face, but his entire body is tense. The trust that Rich puts into Jake feels like an honor sometimes, but mostly, it scares him.

As he pulls out the fourth piece, he sees an extra large gash. It's bleeding more so that the others. “Rich, did you take any glass out before I got here?”

Rich sharply nods. “There's a really big one that I pulled out because it was easy to see.” Jake wants to ask Rich is he seriously walked to Jake’s apartment instead of asking for Jake to pick him up like an _idiot_ but he knows to ask questions later, so he tucks it away.

Jake moves quicker and has all seven pieces of glass out of Rich's stomach in two minutes. He then gets up and washes the blood off his hands. Rich grabs a gauze and applies pressure. Then they wait.

Ten minutes later, Rich checks and sees that all bleeding has stopped. They then repeat the same process of pouring water over the cuts and gashes. Then, as gently as he can, Jake applies ointment to the cuts. Rich insists on putting on his own gauze and tapping it down. Jake lets him.

Jake moves to the couch and waits for Rich to go get some of Jake’s clothes to put on. They're all too big for him, but Rich’ll have to make due if he doesn't want to sit around in his underwear all night.

Jake sighs and lays his head back, closing his eyes. It's not right. It's not fair. Not for Jake and especially not for Rich. He deserves a medical professional, not an idiot with a first aid kit. His head aches and his back hurts. Not to mention he's still sweaty from practice.

A few moments later Rich comes out from the hallway with one of Jake's smallest shirts and a pair of basketball shorts. Rich plops down next to him and sighs as well. They both chill for a minute, letting silence fill the air. Jake lolls his head to look at Rich and asks, “what happened?”

Rich scrunches his lips. “He was more drunk than usual. Got upset. I think he was crying over a picture of mom. I thought I could've sneaked past him when I got home, but of course I couldn't. Maybe I should build a ladder to get to my room.”

Jake tries to laugh at least a little for him, but all that comes out is a sharp exhale. He shakes his head. “Did you walk here?” He already knows the answer, but he wants an explanation from Rich.

“Actually, no. I didn't.”

Jake blinks, “what? How'd you get here?”

“Bus. Got some odd looks but it was a short ride, so…” He shrugs. Jake shakes his head.

“No one asked if you were ok?”

“Well, I was covering everything up, but people were mostly looking at me funny because I kinda looked like a hobo. Let's be honest.” Rich smiles and Jake humors him by smiling back and shaking his head.

“Where'd all the glass come from?”

Rich smirks at him, “you ever heard of a thing called a window?”

“He threw you through a window?!”

“No! No, he didn't. I don't think he's even strong enough to do that. The window was already shattered when I got home. He pushed me into the pile of shards. Dragged me out of the living room and-” Rich cuts himself off, and for a tiny, fleeting second, Jake thinks Rich will cry. But it stops when Rich laughs it off. “You know, the usual.”

“I'm sorry man.”

“Stop it. You didn't do anything.”

“Hey, um, you know that Brooke, Chloe and Jenna would gladly help you right? I’m always gonna be here for you man but, you know you have more options.”

Rich avoids meeting Jake’s eyes. “I know, but, well Chloe doesn’t really like me-”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes it is, and Brooke hates seeing blood, and I barely know Jenna. Plus, she asks too many questions, you know? You and a handful of people already know how fucked my life is, and I would like to keep it that way.”

Jake bites his lip. He peers down at Rich’s thigh, the basketball shorts are riding up enough for him to see the bright red area on his leg. Jake gently taps where the red stops, “what happened here.”

“Must've been a carpet burn, I can't remember, was to busy thinking about the glass in my stomach.”

“I think you should-”

“I'll deal with it in a _minute I just_ -” Rich exhales heavily and pinches his nose. “I just need to sit down for a minute. Ok?”

“...Ok.”

Rich's father has been a drunk since Jake has known Rich. He's a real piece of shit. The only reason he hasn't been arrested and thrown into jail for life is because Rich wants to stay in town, and if his dad is gone, then he has to move to Michigan with his grandparents or something like that. 

Rich glances around, “where's Naka? Shouldn't she be home now?”

“She's at a friend's sleepover.” Rich nods. He's silent. No jokes today, apparently. Jake awkwardly glances around the room, but his eyes land on Rich’s knuckles, “dude, did you fight back?”

Rich’s eyes go wide and he looks down at his bruised and split knuckles. “Uh...yeah, I did. Just a little though. Hey, can we not talk about this, anymore?”

Jake purses his lips once again. “Sure. Oh, hey are you going to the football party next Saturday. You know you're always invited right?”

Rich nods, “hell yeah man. Of course I'm going. That shit always rocks!”

“Well, do you want something to eat? I was planning on ordering pizza later, but we can get some now?”

Rich shakes his head, “naw man. I think I'm just gonna lay down for a bit, ok?”

“Yeah, ok, yeah go ahead.”

“Thanks man.” Rich gets up and shuffles into Jake's bedroom, closing the door behind him. Jake sighs and leans his head back, promptly falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God the lengths of my chapters are all over the place arent they.


End file.
